A Long Way From Home
by synaptictransmission
Summary: When Kathryn left, she took a piece of Jaffen with her. Every single day for the last four years he felt the magnetic pull of that piece draw him away from Quarra. When an unexpected visitor comes to Quarra, Jaffen is given the chance to be with the only woman he ever wanted. Based on Workforce (pt 1&2). Jaffen x Kathryn Janeway.
1. Chapter 1

Jaffen's back ached as he rolled out of bed to go to yet another shift at the power distribution plant. He splashed some water in his face and stretched the kink in his back. Long hours of standing at the monitoring stations in the power distribution centre had aged his muscles and joints. He snorted at his self-pity. His job was one of the best in the solar system; including health benefits, excellent working schedules, competitive wages and since he was promoted, very generous living arrangements. Of course, this promotion came at the same time he lost the love of his life. Due to her crew discovering a planet-wide conspiracy, many abducted and brainwashed workers went back to their previous lives, leaving behind high paying positions at the power distribution plant. For the first time today he already had to remind himself that she had to go back to her people and there was no way for them to be together. His place was here on Quarra. In the last four years he had been repeating the same mantra to himself over and over.

"Great.." He thought, he hadn't even made it to his cooking console yet and the grey cloud of Kathryn Janeway had already descended upon his day. Some days, it held off until he walked past the tavern on the way to work. Groggily he pushed the button on his cooking console to produce a nutritional supplement for breakfast. He didn't feel like making anything fancy that stood a chance of being screwed up by his sleepy state.

As usual, he made it into his workspace right on time and began overseeing the work of the fourteen employees under his direct supervision. His control room used to be occupied by the very corrupt manager that was involved in abducting and brainwashing the entire voyager crew. He liked to think that his management, while average at best, was at least more ethical than his predecessor.

Jaffen gathered his thoughts and headed down to the workstations where his co-workers were gathering for the daily meeting. He nodded to them as he made himself to the front of the group.

"Hello everyone. Unless there is anything that is of immediate concern, you all know the drill, please provide me with your morning generator running baselines within the hour."

Jaffen paused for a moment and quickly turned to walk back up the stairs with the intention of hiding in his workstation for the rest of the shift. One by one, his employees trickled in with their morning statistics. He checked each one of them before handing their tablets back.

Symbya was the last one to come into his work station. She was a sharp new employee with an annoying ability to observe all the social happenings of the employees at the power distribution plant.

She handed him her tablet and said "We missed you at Kiviks birthday party last night."

"hmmpf" Jaffen replied without peeling his eyes off her perfect baseline statistics.

"Why didn't you come?" She kept digging.

"I don't fraternize with my co-workers" He replied handing the tablet back. She didn't reach out to grab it.

They made eye contact and he nudged the tablet closer to her raising an eyebrow indicating that he was not going to elaborate further. She swung her arm around with a dramatic sigh to grab the tablet.

"You used to" she muttered under her breath as she stalked out of his work station.

Jaffen just knew that this new employee was going to be a real thorn in his lazy side.


	2. Chapter 2

After his shift, Jaffen went through the usual routine of going home. He picked up his bag and coat and was out the door no later than 1700 hours.

He hurried down the stairs, past the work stations and out of the power distribution centre. Jaffen paused at a corner to decide if he would take the long way home when he heard light footsteps behind him come to a stop. He turned around but no-one was there.

"hello?" He called

Nothing but a cool breeze came through the ally. He shook off the feeling and turned to take the short way home when he ran smack dab into someone.

"Are you okay?" he asked rubbing his own forehead and kicking himself for not watching where he was going.

"I'm fine!" She said and then looked up "It's you!"

Jaffen sighed. Darn it. Symya.

"Well in that case…..you could make it up to me by coming to the tavern! Kivik and I are celebrating!"

"and why is that?" Jaffen asked rather annoyed.

"Kivik and I have decided to move in together! " She said happily.

The weight of this statement suddenly crushed Jaffen like a collapsed building. Four years ago he had asked Kathryn to move in with him in the same tavern and they had invited their co-workers to come celebrate with them in the same place. He remembered their long nights together, wrapped in each others arms and drunk with each others affections. Jaffen remembered the time he asked Kathryn whether she was uncomfortable and she looked at him with those eyes and told him she had _never_ been more comfortable in her life.

Suddenly, Jaffen realized that they had been standing there, silent for longer than what would be called socially acceptable.

He cleared his throat which was suddenly choked up with tears.

"congratulations" he croaked and pushed past her gruffly to go home.

"aren't you coming to the party? Everyone will be there!" She called after him accusingly

Jaffen made up an excuse about catching up on some incident reports and walked away as fast as possible without actually running.

This Akritirian was really getting on his nerves.

His hands were shaking as he unlocked his apartment. As soon as he got inside he slid down the inside of the door letting the emotion take over. His shoulders were quaking silently in despair.

He had just been so damn lonely over the last four years. It wasn't for a lack of trying. He did try to get over Kathryn, he even pursued a few other ladies on Quarra since then but none of them managed to light the fire inside his heart like Kathryn had.

Jaffen thought about the kind of person he had been before he met Kathryn. He loved working hands on as an engineer in the power distribution plant. Meeting up with his friends in the tavern after work allowed him to socialize and relax with his co-workers. He was truly using the opportunity on Quarra to make a life for himself.

When Kathryn came along, she fit right in and made all of it so much better. Together they solved problems in the power distribution centre that no one else could have solved. Never mind the fact that half of them were their own doing. The efficiency manager at the time did not appreciate their team efforts which made it so much more fun and exciting. After work, he loved going to the tavern together as a team. They would have so much genuine fun whether it was with the friends they had made together or whether they were just in their own world. Everything just clicked.

After she left, going to work was boring. He didn't get to use his engineering training nearly as much as he had hoped as the new shift supervisor. As everyone's supervisor he didn't really have anyone to fraternize with. Going to the tavern after work felt like only half of him was going. Only half the jokes and half of the social competency were present. He never realized that his life was so incomplete until Kathryn filled it for a short period of time. He couldn't help but stare into the black hole she had left in his life.

Jaffen suddenly got annoyed at his self-pity. Kathryn wasn't really the person she was when he met her. He told himself that she had been brainwashed. She never was meant to be on Quarra and she was never really meant to fill his life.

But deep down he knew that although Kathryn didn't have the all of the correct memories, the fiery spirit and the sharp intelligence which he fell in love with were constant. He knew that their souls had connected regardless their memories. She had loved him even when her memories returned. This was only confirmed to him when they had to say goodbye on her starship four years ago. Her voice echoed in his head "I won't need souvenirs to remember you".

Damnit. He punched the wall beside him to feel anything but this crippling pain in his chest. Why was it hitting him so hard today? He had coasted along fine in the last few weeks.

That's when he decided that enough was enough. He could not be with Kathryn, he would never see her again and it was about time his stupid heart (which currently felt like it was taking up his entire chest cavity) was just going to have to get over it. He marched himself to the bathroom sink and splashed some water in his face. After a quick change of clothes he headed straight out of his apartment door and down the stairwell.

He joined another set of footsteps a flight above him also clearly heading downwards. He thought to himself "good" now I can't turn around and walk back up, that would be awkward. He'd have to explain himself which was much more aversive than continuing his path downwards.

He got to the Tavern when the party was just getting started. Symya and Kivik were eating their dinner at a high table while surrounded by a group of co-workers all congratulating them.

Symya spotted him and her eyes widened in surprise.

"Jaffen!" She waved him over through the crowd.

"Grab a seat!" She hopped off her chair and pulled another stool over to their table.

Jaffen nodded and smiled at the couple and sat down.

He made eye contact with the proprietress to summon her to their table.

When he looked back at the happy couple they were looking at him expectantly and wide-eyed.

"Did your building burn down Jaffen?" Symya said half-jokingly.

Jaffen chuckled, on any other day, that's what would have had to happen for him to show up here.

"No, I came to help you celebrate!" He figured that even if his motivations were to run from his feelings, he could still take the opportunity to congratulate them.

Symya was a tad suspicious but smiled nonetheless; she was glad that he came.

Soon after, the whole tavern was filled with customers all celebrating the young couple (whether they knew them or not).

For about twenty minutes Jaffen had barely said anything. He just smiled and watched as the couple received congratulations from co-workers arriving at various times. In-between visitors they told him stories about moments in their relationship, they never allowed the other's slight touch to stray. A hand on a leg, an arm around the shoulder or a head buried in the other's shoulders out of embarrassment.

Some of the others at the bar gave Jaffen a surprised look and he just shrugged his shoulders and gave them a smirk. They all let it go and allowed him to build his buzz in peace. Jaffen was already a few drinks in and felt his thoughts going comfortably fuzzy. None of them sharp enough to cause him any serious emotional pain now.

The proprietress had to ask Symya, Kivik and Jaffen to leave at closing time. They all swayed home slowly. The breeze allowed their senses to sharpen slightly. Their new apartment was just a few buildings over from Jaffens and they parted ways when they got to his.

"Thanks for coming out tonight" Kivik said shaking his hands. He nodded his head towards Symya who was a few steps ahead already. "She finds you very inspiring, it meant a lot to her that you came."

Jaffen nodded. His tongue felt clumsy and he said "You're welcome" before turning to head into his building.

The glass door slammed behind him as he was walking up the brightly lit stairwell. He looked up and saw the never ending spiral of stairs spin slightly. He quickly shifted his gaze back to the steps in front of him not to lose balance. When he got a few flights up he heard the door downstairs slam and footsteps make their way up the stairs behind him.

"At least I'm not the only one coming in this late" he thought to himself as he trotted on.

When he finally got to his apartment door he only managed to get in, slam the door and fall into his bed. Jaffen was asleep a minute later.


	3. Chapter 3

Jaffen woke up with a groan. He instantly knew that something about his morning was wrong. A quick glance at his communicator told him why. He was supposed to be at the power distribution plant in less than 10 minutes.

He got out of bed and instantly tripped over his shoes which were lined up right beside his bed. Strange, he thought, he didn't remember taking them off the night before. He looked down and realized that he was in fact still wearing all his other clothes from the day before but his coat was hung neatly beside the door.

An uneasy feeling crept up in his gut. Something wasn't right. He shook his head and shoved the feeling down. He'd have to figure this out later, right now he had to figure out how to keep his job by somehow getting to work on time.

He threw a new set of clothes on and dashed to the door. When he grabbed the door handle it slipped out of his hand and the door crashed into the coatrack with too much force. His door had not been latched completely. The uneasy feeling in his gut grew and he took the extra moment to make sure the door was locked before running down the stairs and out of the building.

He made it to the power distribution plant ten minutes late and walked straight to his co-worker's workstations to begin the morning meeting as if nothing was different. He really hoped that no important messages were on his console upstairs waiting to be distributed at the morning meeting.

Jaffen swept a look across the assembled workers to make sure that nobody was missing. He made eye contact with Symya who raised an eyebrow as he walked past her. At the front he cleared his throat and began his morning greeting.

"Good morning, please bring me your baselines in the next hour. If you'll excuse me, I'll be in my workstation."

He took the metal stairs up to his station two at a time and almost lunged for his console. Jaffen immediately started checking the logs from the previous shift supervisor and the higher managers.

"A new labourer has been assigned to your unit. Please make him familiar with the operations of this facility and introduce him to your staff this morning."

Jaffen was confused, he hadn't noticed a new face among his staff members. Luckily for him it seemed, the new guy had decided to no-show on his first day.

Just then his communicator beeped.

"hello?"

"Jaffen" His boss said in an annoyed voice

Oh no, he'd been caught. Jaffen sighed.

He took a breath to begin explaining himself but his boss began talking first.

"Your new employee has been detained by security in the city. We need you to go and get him out of this mess. We can't afford to lose another good worker in this labour crisis."

"What?!" Out of all the messages he had expected, this was not it.

"You heard me, go take care of this." His boss barked through the communicator.

Bleep. The communicator's screen went blank.

Jaffen went to grab his bag but of course, he had left that at home. He left the building within five minutes of entering and headed to the nearest transporter. He hadn't noticed how beautiful the weather on Quarra was today and allowed his step to slow down to enjoy the warmth on his face. He was on company time after all.

The transporter was full of people heading to work and into the city centre. Jaffen let his mind wander. He thought about last night and how he had gone out for the first time in ages. Jaffen realized how nice it had been to enjoy somebody else's happiness with them. Then his thoughts travelled back in time to before he was at the tavern and why he had decided to go there in the first place. Kathryn Janeway. Would he ever get over that woman? He sighed. Probably not. Today she was a fuzzy rosy memory. His behaviour seemed very melodramatic to him in hindsight. Rational Jaffen knew that Kathryn Janeway was nothing more than a myth. Myths are stories that happened life-times ago to teach people lessons and would never come true again. Which was exactly the case when it came to her. He knew he had to accept it. He didn't like it. But it wasn't like he had a choice in the matter. He continued to watch the city whizz by, a city he never had a chance to show her.

City headquarters was swarming with employees of every species heading every which way. He walked into the big glass lobby through the bustle of people. In the centre of the large glass hall was a round desk with "CITY RECEPTION" written across the front. At the back of the hall a large set of stairs led to the higher levels of city headquarters.

He cleared his throat.

The secretary looked up and said "Can I help you?"

"I'm looking for city security. They're holding my co-worker"

The secretary gave him an appraising look. She pushed a few buttons on her communicator.

"A plant worker is here to talk to his co-worker"

"I'll be right up"

"Thanks Derruck"

The secretary looked up and asked him to wait for a few minutes.

A few minutes later a Malon in uniform came up to the desk. The secretary gestured to Jaffen who got up to greet the security guard.

"Hello Derruck. I'm Jaffen. I'm hoping to speak to one of my co-workers who was detained by the city."

A chuckle escaped Derrucks throat. "Is that so? Come with me"

Derruck led the way behind the receptionist desk and through large hall. They were headed straight for the stairs at the back of the hall which lead to a balcony from which you could see the whole entrance from above. Once at the stairs, Derruck walked right past them and headed around to the back where another set lead straight down. At the bottom of the stairs they crossed a narrow hallway to walk through a set of double doors.

Inside the double doors was another reception desk but it was staffed by another Malon in a security uniform. He had his feet up on the desk and was playing a popular Quarra puzzle game in his lap. Behind him were several desks with piles of paper. Some of them were occupied by other bored looking security staff playing the same game.

"Wait here" said Derruck and walked in behind his desk and started shuffling through various papers.

"So….why are you here..Jaffen?"

Jaffen was starting to get annoyed by the guards attitude.

"One of my employees was detained by you this morning. But he's done nothing wrong."

"Really?" Said Derruck "How do you know?"

"Well, he's one of my staff and I know all of them to be upstanding individuals. None of them would jeopardize their positions at the power plant for …" He didn't even know what the new guy did wrong to end up here. He really hoped he wasn't helping a murderer out at the moment.

"Well if you know him so well and are willing to vouch for him, why don't you come and get him from the cell?"

Jaffen looked up and realized that multiple cells behind the desks were occupied with various different criminals.

Oh no. This was not going well. His employer would not be pleased if he guessed the wrong one and returned with an un-qualified criminal.

Derruck and the other security guard grinned at each other when they saw his expression. Derruck gestured him to come step in behind the desk. Jaffen swallowed and complied.

"NO TALKING!" The other security guard barked at his prisoners over his shoulder before returning to his game.

Jaffen walked along the cells and made eye contact with each one as he walked along. He paused every time hoping they would give him some sort of clue. They all just stared blankly at him.

When he got to the 5th cell he took one look at the face behind the bars and instantly recognized the alien. But from where? He just couldn't put his finger on it. The feeling from this morning crept up in his insides again and he knew that he had to talk to him but without the guards present.

"him" Jaffen told the Derruck.

The security guard looked at him surprised which quickly turned into suspicion. Derruck grabbed his arm and pulled him away further into the convoluted offices of the security section.

Jaffen was shoved into an empty office and quickly heard the door lock.

10 minutes later Derruck returned with his superior who did not beat around the bush.

"How do you know the talaxian?"

"I—uhh, he works for me" Jaffen said

"You haven't met him. He told us today would have been his first day at the power plant"

So he had guessed the right one. He felt a little victorious until he realized that his lie had been found out.

"He looked familiar, I must have received a staff photo before he arrived.." A complete lie.

"Interesting…" said the officer. "because we caught him snooping around your building last night"

Jaffen had expected to hear anything but that. His face seemed to show his shock at these news.

"Did he steal anything?!" He blurted out

"Not one thing. He won't tell us what he was doing in a building not assigned to him and with a stolen key card."

"So you're holding him here for….a stolen key card?" Jaffen asked.

"Well…when we looked into the security footage we saw that he followed you into the building and then into your apartment."

A cold shiver ran all the way down Jaffens body. This man was probably responsible for his shoes lined up beside his bed, his coat on the hook and the unlocked door. Somehow the fact that he hadn't stolen anything was the worst part. Who knew how long he had been following him. Jaffen thought about the footsteps and his weird moments over the last few days and suddenly felt the urge to get some answers. He also suddenly realized that this entire situation made him look quite suspicious. He somehow had to get the alien away from these prying eyes to question him. Then it dawned on him.

Jaffen stood up and cleared his throat.

"We will deal with this employee at the company level. This behaviour is not acceptable and the power distribution plant will deal with this matter themselves. As this involves two company employees, the city security will not be necessary for further proceedings."

The security staff looked at him with surprise. They hadn't expected a low level supervisor to remember the policies surrounding employees indiscretions. There was nothing they could do because that was in fact how things were handled on Quarra. The power distribution plant dealt with all crimes (except for murder) between employees even if they occurred after hours. It allowed them to save the company from embarrassment or to make an example of the rule breakers in their company. Besides, it saved the city security a lot of headache and money since the majority of the population on Quarra were employees of the plant.

Derruck and his boss took him out to the cells and opened the door for the talaxian.

The talaxian was about to open his mouth to thank Jaffen profusely but quickly wiped the smile off his face when he saw Jaffens unimpressed face.

Jaffen grabbed his arm rougher than necessary to escort him out of the security office.

As soon as they reached the first landing on the stairs Jaffen jammed his arm into the mans chest and pinned him to the wall.

"who. are. you.?! Why do I recognize you and why were you in my apartment taking off my shoes and tiding up my clothes?"

"My" "name" "is" "Neelix" he said trying to catch his breath.

Suddenly it hit him like a big sack of Leola roots.

"Voyager" Jaffen exhaled and released his grip on the man.


End file.
